Wintertime Tips to Keep Landscaping Safe

Wintertime Tips to Keep Landscaping Safe

Lawn care is typically a spring and summertime activity, but in the dead of winter — even one as brutal as this has been — there’s still plenty you can do to protect your landscaping.

The Professional Landscape Network (PLANET) offers some tips for how to protect your plants during deep freezes and harsh winter storms. Some of them might actually come as a surprise, such as this one: Don’t remove snow from your flower beds; let the snow melt. Digging out plants from under compact snow can actually cause them more harm.

Other wintertime landscaping tips from PLANET:

Keep plants well-hydrated
Plants still lose water through their leaves during winter. Keeping them hydrated up until a hard freeze will make

Minimize salt damage
Salt draws water away from plants’ roots, so flush out the soil around plants with plenty of water if you’ve used salt near flower beds. You can also place protective fencing around plants to keep salt out of the soil.

Remove Broken Limbs
Take off broken branches on trees, shrubs, and bushes as soon as possible. Make a clean cut so it’s harder for insects and diseases to enter the plant.

Protect your plants from frost
Place material such as burlap wrapping over plants, particularly at night, to protect them from frost. But don't forget to uncover them as soon as it starts to warm up again.